Zojirushi EB-CC15 Indoor Electric Grill

I spent hours researching indoor electric grills before deciding to purchase the Zojirush. I wanted something that would get hot enough to really mimic outdoor grilling and the reviewers on Amazon.com seemed to indicate that this one would--and also be easy to clean. I knew it would be small--only enough for three to four people, but that's fine for our small family. But if you want to cook for a crowd, this grill is too small for your needs. Last night I set up the grilling pan--very easy to do just as promised--and put heavy duty tin foil in the drip pan with some water in it to prevent smoke. I also sprayed the grill plate with Canola oil spray and wiped off the excess as the instructions indicated to do. I followed the enclosed instructions to heat the grill for 10 minutes and then placed three New York Strip steaks (all about 3/4 inch high) on the grill. (I did not marinade the steaks--just seasoned with lots of salt and pepper.) I covered the steaks with a grocery store bought aluminum pan with handles to keep the temperature up. Wonderful sizzle and smell immediately! Also, wonderful grill marks. I grilled the steaks (still on high heat) exactly as I would on my outdoor propane grill: 3 minutes on each side, then another 3 minutes on each side for my husband who likes his steak rare; I cooked the other two steaks for an additional 4 minutes for my son and me who like our steaks medium rare. Total cooking time: 12 minutes for rare, 14 minutes for medium rare. (I kept the aluminium pan on top at all times to make sure the grill was really hot.) These were some of the best steaks we've ever had! Our family could not believe that these weren't grilled outdoors--and in fact thought they were juicier than the ones that are grilled outdoors. I am thrilled! I have wanted to grill indoors for most of my married life but had had bad experiences with other grills that didn't get hot enough. This one does and if it grilled New York strip steaks to perfection, then it can grill anything! Tomorrow I'm going to grill chicken breasts, onions, and peppers for chicken fajitas. I can't wait! By the way: clean up was easy, too. I waited till the grill plate was cool, unhooked the electric plug, placed the grill plate diagonally in the sink and rinsed it with warm water, scrubbing it with a brush to get off the bits of meat. I then took out the drip pan, dumped the fat and juices in the sink that were in the tin foil, and then carefully removed the tin foil and threw it in the trash. Easy! I then wiped the handles of the grill and the plastic base with a damp sponge and dried with a paper towel. The grill looked brand new! I am in love with my Zorjirushi grill! This is one of the best buying experiences I've ever had. One last thing: many people wonder about smoke and smell inside their home. This did not smoke at all and I didn't even need to open a window or use our stove vent fan. Did our kitchen smell of steak? Yes and boy was that a good smell!

Over the years I've purchased so, so many indoor grills, and I didn't like any of them even a little bit. Most indoor grills are "contact" grills with a lid that grills the top of the food while the bottom grills the underside. I could do that in a frying pan by just turning my food. The Zojirushi is a real grill with openings for the grease to drip into a pan. Grill marks are perfect; there really is NO smoke, and the finished project is like food that you cooked outside on the grill....BUT you didn't have to stand outside in the heat swatting bugs and inhaling fumes. It doesn't get any better. Clean up is a breeze. You can wash the grill section with hot, soapy water, but you can NOt immerse it in water....like put it in the sink to soak. A quick wipe down of the bottom section, the heating element, and the cord puts you ready for the next meal. No, I didn't forget to mention the drip pan's clean up. Just line it with foil. Remove the foil and you've got a clean drip pan. GREASE?? Of course there is grease. I don't care what you cook or upon what you cook it, there will be grease. I put my grill on the counter next to my stove. That way I could be preparing food on top of the stove while grilling on the counter next to it. I did put my exhaust fan on to remove cooking odors. The grease clean up was minimal....a little glass cleaner on a paper towel, and I was done. I discovered that an aluminum baking pan as for a cake makes a superb lid. The one I used was an HFA 3940 size. I like thick pork chops on the grill. I grill on high for a couple of minutes on each side. Then I cover with the aluminum pan and lower the temperature on the control and allow the chops to cook 20 minutes on each side. After removing the "lid" I brush with BBQ sauce and recover. Ten more minutes on each side gives me a nice, juicy BBQ-ed chop. The cookbook is nice, but you'll need to experiment a bit as far as times go. Everything you grill needs to start out on high. If I were still young and entertaining as I once did I'd have four to six of these grills positioned around my entertainment area. Each couple could grill their own appetizers or meat adding toppings and marinades as they see fit. Or....I could have four to six different foods cooking with someone in-charge of the grills. This grill is superb, but I recommend it for one or two people only. You could feed up to four people if you crowded the grill and didn't allow much food per person. Who in the world would do that?? Purchase the grill and treat yourself. After using it please write a review so everyone can find out the clever uses and recipes you developed.

My wife asked for one for Christmas after using one at dinner at a friend's home. I didn't know much about them and this one was highly praised so I got it. This is probably supposed to be a review on quality and usability etc, so... it's well made, high quality, works very well. Since I'm the one who cleans after each use, I can tell you that nothing sticks to it making it very easy to clean BUT with all it's nooks and crannies it takes a long time to clean it thoroughly. First with paper towels (lots), then dry cotton cloths, and then a damp cloth with a little detergent and then final careful rinsing with water. It cooks really well, but the best thing about this is the fun you can have with a family meal. Like eating hotdogs over a campfire, having a family meal with this in the center of the table makes everything taste better. Wish everyone cooking their own small slices of beef or shrimp or green peppers.... and competing for space or claiming their own spot of the grill... it's so much fun and the food seems to taste better. Really the only downside is cleaning it afterwards but if you're cleaning it while everyone else is clearing the table and putting dishes in the dishwasher then it's not so bad taking the time to clean it. With our fast paced lifestyle it's really nice to take the time and enjoy a long, slow meal with family and friends and cleaning up isn't doing bad.

UPDATED at end. I've used this grill several times now for chicken. I was concerned when I got it that no reasonably-priced indoor grill would deliver enough continuing heat to cook well. This one does, although there's none to spare. I typically cook two or three boneless chicken breasts (either whole or cut up into tenders.) It does not have enough room for four breasts' worth of tenders, although it would hold four breasts (possibly six if they were smallish.) The heat delivery when the platter is full is adequate to keep things cooking; when the platter is less than full you will want to bring the temp down off of "high" in order to keep from overheating. The paperwork says to not put it in the dishwasher. I've ignored that twice now, and so far so good. You do have to clean off any stuck-on bits off the grill by hand -- the raised lines of the grill keep the valleys between them from getting clean. Maybe it would do better in the top rack but that would take up almost the whole rack. It's a good size, it's sufficient heat, it's convenient as hell and doesn't require you to go out to the outdoor grill in the winter (keeps the heat indoors!) -- not perfect but now part of my standard arsenal. UPDATE 8/16/2014: I use this grill a couple of times a week now. Typically it's for burgers, chicken, or fish. Generally quite satisfied - I would get it again. Generally I have it set on medium-high for chicken or burgers, or medium for fish. When I cook chicken tenders on it I fill the thing up edge to edge and corner to corner; the cooking is surprisingly even across the whole surface: there are no hotspots and only the outermost inch or so shows less browning than the rest. It has two drawbacks that honestly I can't see how they would fix, and would plague any indoor grill: it spatters grease over your cooking area, and it's not the easiest thing to clean. For the former I surround it on the counter with several dishtowels that I can then throw in the wash; for the latter, a toothbrush and hot water do most of the work, and when I've gotten all the chunks off and cleaned out the drip tray all the pieces except the controller go into the dishwasher. Fish is the worst, but still manageable -- I just run the hot water on it for five minutes or so before I attack it with the toothbrush, and everything comes right off. It's clean enough to use at that point but generally I throw it in the dishwasher after that so it won't smell of fish.

When we picked the location to live, it has a big open field behind it and all I could think about were all the cookouts we would have. Then, the forest fires in the Great Smoky Mountains caused our HOA to put in a no open flame grilling rule. I wouldn't say I could live off grilled food but in a way, I could. Having said that, my wife loves steak from a grill but little else. The kids love hamburgers and hot dogs from a grill but little else. My big one is salmon. I'm the only one in our family that eats it so it was kind of frustrating to fire up a large gas grill just to make myself two pieces of salmon 3-4 times a week. I've tried many, we have a Griddler by Cuisinart, two George Foreman "champs" and I recently tried one of the Power Smokeless Grills (review here on Amazon in my review history). The Griddler is nice. It makes really great hot sandwiches (works like a Panini Press). But none of those pressing grills do well with my salmon. I knew I needed one that's more flat and gets hot fast. I finally took the chance on this Zojirushi and here's a brief explanation of my thoughts after a week of having it. This is the best indoor grill I've ever used. There's little to no smoke and I'm pretty sure the design, maybe something some might see as a downside, is why it works so well. Unlike the press type indoor grills, you can't put this one's cooking surface in the dishwasher. That's because the burner is built into the cooking surface. You don't have plates being removed, washed, put back in, snapping into place, trying to make good contact with the burner. It does take away that "ease" of being able to pop the trays out and putting them in the dishwasher but I've used it 4 times now and thanks to other reviews, it's not only the best indoor grill I've used, it's the easiest to clean. This is what you receive with this grill. A cooking surface that makes very good grill marks that has holes in it. The food sits flat on the surface and the grease just drips through. Underneath the cooking surface/burner, there's a metal tray that's the same size as the cooking surface. The excess grease drips down into it. Below the metal tray, a plastic base that if nothing else, helps stabilize everything. You put a sheet of foil in the drip tray, when you finish cooking, you can ball the foil up and throw it away. The only thing to clean is the cooking surface. One end has the receptacle that the thermostat plugs into. You keep that end angled up out of your warm water in a sink, take a brush or cloth and wipe it clean. I'm not kidding, it's that easy. How does it work? I made 2 six ounce salmon pieces (1/2 inch thick) 3 times on it. I turned the dial on the thermostat to high, waited 3 minutes, it was ready. I cooked the salmon on high for 7 minutes, flipped each piece for another 7 minutes, it's done. Grill marks, flakiness, everything exactly like an outdoor grill. I will say you're not going to come from a charcoal or gas grill and say, "This tastes just like food from my gas/charcoal grill". It can't since it's not gas or charcoal but it tastes very good and the food is hot. My original plan was just to use it for my salmon. But the kids, for whatever reason, up and decided they wanted grilled hamburgers. I cooked 6 at a time, 12 total and it took less than 25 minutes to cook all 12. Grill marks, well done in the middle and the kids (possibly the pickiest eaters in the world) loved them. I ate 4. I really can't believe how many times I've seen this grill on Amazon and skipped over it. Even better, it's forty dollars cheaper than I remember it being. I like it so much that I've figured out what I'm buying my brother-in-law for Christmas and might even buy a couple more as presents. I'm the friend/relative that buys you things that aren't exactly exciting but you'll be thanking me for the next year. I gave it 5 stars across the ratings. Easy to assemble is as easy as it can be. Easy to clean was already covered. And durability will take a year or more of use to determine but I see no reason for anything to go wrong. I could see the no-dishwasher part bothering some but when you see how easy it is to clean (excellent non-stick surface), you'll realize it's not that big of a trade off. Very happy with this though the salmon aren't.

Great product for tabletop grilling at home. I love going to the local Korean market and picking up a pack of samgyupsal or pre-marinated bulgogi and radish slices for wrapping. This makes for a very easy and fun dinner with your spouse or friends (bonus points if you have soju!). After having used it for a year, my thoughts are... Pros: + It heats up fast and gets hot! I cook my pork belly on with medium heat only and that gets beautiful browning after a few minutes. + Very easy clean-up with drip tray (would recommend wrapping tray with foil before use to make it even easier) + Perfect for a DIY KBBQ night for 2-3 people, maybe 4 depending on your setup. + Non-stick surface doesn't lie! Cons: - No lid** Notes: - ** At first, I had a big problem with the lack of a lid because I wanted to utilize indirect heat so I would just use foil tents. However, nowadays I use it exclusively for DIY KBBQ and thus have no need for a lid because nothing I cook is thick enough to need a lid. - This is perfect for tabletop grilling with 2 people, but I actually usually feed 3 with this (with side dishes and a big pot of rice and soondubu too). - I've never had issues with smoke, contrary to some reviews. - Tin foil wrap the drip tray! I can't imagine not wrapping it and having to wipe/wash off all the grease.

Shipping was good and I received it on the earliest day amazon said it could make it. The grill works as advertised and I have had no problems so far. I have cooked on it about 4 times in a week and half and there was little to no smoke. There was a little smoke the first time I used it but no more than what you would get from a normal pot or frying pan. I posted a picture above to show how much food it can hold. It cooks the chicken well and leaves the grill marks too. I cooked the chicken for about 10-15 minutes on each side based on how thick it was. The inside was not dry and was soft, it came out better than most chicken I have tried to cook. The manual says if the food doesn't have any fat on it to coat the grilling area with vegetable oil. The non stick coating and the oil worked well, the chicken never got stuck and slid around easily. Cleaning was easy too, it took about 5-15 minutes to clean. In the manual it tells you how to clean, cook, and assemble. I would recommend this to anyone who does not have the space for bigger grills or the time to clean them.

Previously we had a one of those clamshell electric grills. The non-stick surface on that was wearing away and cleaning it became a pain (all that burnt junk was a pain to get off). I was looking to replace that grill and came across this one. Despite my initial thoughts to get another clamshell, after reading the review on this one and thinking it over I got this. End of story is that I am very happy with my choice and think this is a much better solution. The benefits are several: 1. The juices no longer sit on the grill surface getting all burnt. This improves the taste of food as you have less burnt residue attaching to food and makes cleaning so much easier. Also this reduces the amount of smoke. 2. You can control the temperature (I know comparable clam shells have that option. I am just mentioning this because my last one did not). 3. You can clean every inch and crevice of this thing in your sink or dishwasher. There are no electric parts built-in that interfere with cleaning. The plug goes straight into the cooking grate and the cooking grate when the plug is out can be fully washed off. 4. I think you can achieve higher temps than the clamshell. What I mean is that this has a single cooking surface at 1300 Watts. A clamshell with 1300 Watts would only get 650 Watts to each side. If you want to do a nice sear this thing does a great job. Also as the juices are not building up in the grate at the high temp there is nothing burning and messing with your sear. I cannot think of any cons as there is nothing I preferred about the clamshell type to this.

I read about this grill in Consumer Reports (who gave it a good review for moderately priced indoor electric grills), I bought it and was delighted that it worked as described. I cooked several dishes on it including zucchini slices, asparagus spears, T bone steak and hamburger. The grill heated up in 4 minutes ready to cook and the cooking surface seemed to heat up evenly. The zucchini and asparagus were the best I ever tasted, esp the zucchini which is so bland it really needs to be grilled to add flavour - plus the grill marks look good on it too. The hamburger cooked on the grill tasted much better than fried in a pan. It was very, very close to outdoor charcoal grilling. The T bone steak was good,(much better than in a frying pan) but I think T bone is best cooked over charcoal because the surface sears quicker to hold in the juices. I used the grill on top of a glass top stove (turned off of course), so I could take advantage of the range hood fan to vent fumes. This worked very well, especially for the hamburger and the T bone which did smoke some. I was able to cook onions for the hamburger in a small fry pan placed on the grill. This worked well and was a handy way to have fried onions alongside the burgers. Washing the grill is easy, taking it apart for cleaning is simple as is putting it back together. I placed wet paper towels on the grill to soak it for several hours as it cooled before cleaning it. The drip tray is easily cleaned in a dishwasher. I want to use the grill often and plan to build a pull out drawer exclusively for the grill so it does not clutter up my counter top. I'm always delighted when things work exactly as described. I highly recommend this grill especially for people trying to add more vegetables into their diet.

I've owned mine for two years and while I use the outdoor gas grill in the summer, this thing does a credible job on steaks and burgers in the winter. Heat is a little uneven and you have to juggle the food a bit to get it on the hot spots evenly but once you figure that out everything is smooth sailing. Cleanup is a breeze, as one reviewer stated, as long as you do it immediately after it cools down. For the fellow who's asking for a cleaning tool, he could go to any dollar store and buy a $1 plastic bottle brush and that would do an excellent job, though I've never needed one. One final note. I especially like the fact that the heating element is embedded directly inside the grill casting. Other such grills with a separate element may be cheaper to make, but I find those generate way too much smoke and tend to actually ignite the drippings. This thing cooks with virtually no smoke and it seems to be a much safer design.

We love making kababs, and grilled veggies so after much research decided to buy this grill. It is a fantastic grill as far as 'making the food' is concerned. No smoking, nice blackened lines on the grilled food and easy to use. We do baste while we grill so have not noticed any issues with veggies overdrying either. We leave it on high for a few minutes every time we turn it on, to burn off any 'residue' from last use. The issue is with the cleaning of the grill. I read plenty reviews where everyone seems to be raving about how easy it is to clean. I disagree. Sure the surface is very non stick and food residue just glides off, but the dripping does stick and burn on the bottom. And when grilling meats, you dont want the bottom part even mildly coated with oils - bacteria could grow, and the smell is another factor. Since it is a nonstick coating, the only way to clean it requires gently wiping it down with a very soft brush or cloth repeatedly till all of the food residue is gone. Believe me it takes very long. It is on account of this cleanup we dont use it as much as we would like. I wish it came with a tool that would help with the cleanup of the bottom of the grilling plate.

This grill does an excellent job at moving the fat and other juices away from the heating elements thus keeping the generation of smoke to a minimum. It takes a bit of time to reach temperature but once there it maintains the temperature as selected. Nice grill.

Don't get me wrong. The one star is for Zojirushi quality control and warranty service. I'd love to give the item 5 stars in term of usage. Received the item sold by Amazon. Realized there is a chip on the polished finish just under the power socket (see the customer image I uploaded). Contacted Zojirushi and sent the picture by email. The customer service rep was very helpful. But he warned me that their warranty department would refuse to do anything as "it does not affect usage". Regardless he submitted the case. A few hours later, the rep called me back that indeed the warranty department refused to admit it is a defective item as "the customer can still use it". I was told that my only options were either keep it as it is, or send it back to Amazon. Amazon was very nice by offering refund or replacement. Since it was sold out at Amazon at that moment, I decided to keep it. With it is clearly a manufacture defect, I am disappointed with how Zojirushi treating customers. My own google search shows that Zojirushi is pretty poor on warranty service in North America. Just because an item is still usable does not justify Zojirushi to release it with defect, no matter how small the defect is. I was a fan on both Panasonic and Zojirushi appliances equally. Now you know which brand I am leaning to on my next purchase.